Outpeople: Couple’s fishing shop marks first anniversary on the fly

A dream is coming true for Dustin Stetson, who is marking the first anniversary with The River Fly Shop he runs on the North Fork Coeur d’Alene River with his partner, Katie Hoyt.

“I’ve been fishing the North Fork since I was 8,” he said from the shop next to the Snake Pit restaurant at Enaville, Idaho. “Now I’m guiding every day and Katie knows everything about the river, too.

“This is the first fly shop to be on the river. The fishing is too good for this river not to have a fly shop.”

Stetson had been a Yakima River guide and manager of a fly shop in Ellensburg before taking the leap to run his own shop a mile north of Interstate 90.

Hoyt, who also grew up in the Coeur d’Alene area, learned to fly fish from her stepfather. “It’s an honor to be associated with this river and its native cutthroat trout,” she said.

Stetson books his guiding trips on the CdA and St. Joe rivers through ROW Adventures based in Coeur d’Alene.

But he and Hoyt run the shop, selling gear – from sunglasses to a line of fly rods and supplies – and keep busy doing vehicle shuttles for anglers. They get moral support from Bosco, a Newfoundland-black Lab mix, which Hoyt describes as their “awesome shop dog.”

“We sell a ton of flies,” Hoyt said. “We’re just getting a sign made to advertise our three most popular products. It says, “Shuttle-Bugs-Beer.”

She said it was surprising how many people stop in to the fly shop and ask if they sell worms. “But 75 percent of the anglers we see on the river are fly fishers,” Stetson said.

“We have a lot of repeat customers,” Hoyt said. “Fishermen like to stop in and see what hatches are on and what fish have been taking,” she added, picking out a purple mayfly pattern. “These are deadly on cutthroat in this river.”

“We pride ourselves on giving good service and providing good flies that work for the time of year,” Stetson said.

They answer the common questions about river access and boat launching points with a color map they researched for a year and sell for $12.

Hoyt said one customer told Stetson he should have opened the shop 20 years ago. “I would have liked to,” he said. “Except I’d have been only 13.